The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for a diagnostic event buffer.
When a computer system encounters an error then it is possible to provide a snapshot of a computer system program stack for diagnostic purposes. The snapshot of the program stack at the point of error is just a small portion of the context of the error since the stack frame can grow and shrink over time and historical path information beyond that snapshot is not available. What is not provided is a comprehensive code path taken leading up to the error occurrence. In order to be able to debug the error, a user configures a conventional trace for the duration of a diagnostic test that may need to run for hours and days before the error reoccurs. A conventional trace can also change execution, and this can affect how the code behaves, sometimes preventing the error from happening.